It All Started With An Email
by Windrider1967
Summary: Darren and Chris's lives were simple, right? One email will change all that. Rating for language cause Darren really does curse like a sailor.


_**Authors note: I usually don't do extended authors notes, but this story came out of a comment conversation on Facebook. Klaine fanfiction decided to post up a status of potential Crisscolfer coming out scenarios. I added my thoughts and and ended up with what I was told was a winner. So I had to write this just because.**_

_**Just the standard disclaimer. I hold no ownership of Darren Criss, Chris Colfer, or any of their people. This is strictly an exercise in my thought process behind the possible coming out of Crisscolfer as a couple. I have no clue what the personal lives of these two are like, and I apologized anyone who takes offense to this, but if you are reading Crisscolfer you should expect it.**_

* * *

It all started out with an e-mail. Well, maybe didn't START with an e-mail, but the e-mail was what started things spinning out of control. But that comes later, so let's start back at the beginning.

A lot of people would probably say that Darren was an open book. And in all honesty, for an actor, he had absolutely no poker face. When he was in public it was pretty obvious what his thoughts were. He tended to be the happy-go-lucky person that he was in everyday life. But there were just certain things that he preferred to keep private.

It turned out to be difficult, because once he ended up in the public eye everyone wanted to know everything about him. When he had first started Glee, the obvious question, at least to every interviewer, had been about his sexuality. Everyone wanted a label put on his feelings and his identification, and Darren hated labels. The world wanted things laid out in neat little boxes, though. Yeah Darren had messed around a bit in college, mainly while drunk, with some of his male friends but he had only ever really had feelings for women. He would never have discounted the possibility, because if there was one thing he believed, deeper than anything, it was that you love people, not genders. You may be more attracted to one than the other on a regular basis, but if the person that caught your heart happened to have the same genitals that was just the way things were. Still, pressed for an answer, and unsure how to really explain, his reply had been, "I have always identified myself as straight." Now that statement could come back to bite him in the ass.

He never planned on falling for Chris. When he first started the two of them became instant friends. They bonded over Harry Potter, he STILL couldn't believe that Chris was a Starkid from way back, and they just meshed. Away from his friends and family in LA, Chris was someone that he could spend time with and just be himself. He couldn't even really pin down the moment when curling up on Chris's couch to watch Disney movies went from the close comfort of friends to something more, but it had. Hugs became more intimate, nights spent together frequently ended up curled up together in the morning but by the end of the tour they had long passed the friendship line into relationship. Once that happened, there were so many considerations that had to be made. Not only between the two of them, but also with Ryan and their individual publicists and the network and the public at large.

After all, Darren had basically stated when he started that he was straight. Add another curveball into the equation because now you had Darren, who personally knew that he was a little more flexible in terms of sexuality than the public had the ability to understand, who was now involved with his openly gay costar. So now there were all the issues. Did Chris turn him or did he lie? That was something that his publicists and the network weren't really sure how to address. So that's when the charade really started.

In all honesty, Darren and Mia had dated at one point. They still remain good friends and she was part of his life before Glee. That wasn't something that just was given up once he got on the show, but they weren't dating and hadn't been for awhile. With the relationship between he and Chris getting serious; the publicists and the networks decided that since he had been seen in public with her several times the relationship was something that should be encouraged publicly. It was a way to avoid all the awkward questions.

Honestly, he was willing to let it go for a while. All anybody really asked from him was for him to take Mia to some public events and basically just appear together in public. There never was any pressure to put any kind of label on their relationship and he never used the word girlfriend or dating in reference to her. The public was left to make their own assumptions. He did feel uncomfortable with the fact that he was in this wonderful relationship with Chris and he was putting out the appearance of dating somebody else, but his publicist convinced him that his career as well as Chris's could be damaged if the truth came out.

He and Chris actually had some fun watching the CrissColfer/Miarren debate on Facebook, Twitter and tumblr. The fans were perceptive and the further he and Chris were kept apart publicly the more the fans were convinced that they were together. He started having reservations the week of the Madonna concert.

First, he had gone to the concert with Chris, Mark, and a few other friends. After the show Michael, his publicist showed up with Mia and arranged a publicity picture of them. Mia wasn't even at the concert, matter of fact she didn't even like Madonna. But then the fans who had commented on seeing him at the concert with Chris were pressured into removing their tweets about it. That was strike one.

The second strike was when he had picked Chris up after the American Horror Story party. He had another event the same evening and once again the fans noticed and commented on Twitter and tumblr. Once again, Michael and Chris's publicist Erica stepped in and the posts were removed.

The third strike brings things back to the beginning, the email.

...

"Fuck them all to mother fucking hell!" Darren literally yelled from his seat on Chris's couch.

Chris looked up quickly from where he was working on his laptop in time to see Darren throw his iPhone across the room. He jumped when it contacted the wall and ricocheted in at least three different directions.

"What the hell, Dare?" he asked, walking across to where Darren was now pacing, mumbling under his breath.

"Mother fucking, overbearing, stupid damned controlling sons of bitches ... That's what's up Chris. They want me to publicly 'step it up' with Mia. Michael just sent me an email telling me that with the whole concert and AHS thing, the fans are getting too close for comfort. They want me to 'identify her as my official girlfriend' and 'show affection publicly'. I think I am going to kill them," Darren ranted, using lots of air quotes before deflating on the couch.

"Fuck," Was the most eloquent response Chris could give before sitting down and pulling Darren into a tight embrace.

"I know we have talked about this, Chris, and I know that everyone is concerned about what career damage our relationship has the potential to cause, but ... I can't do this." Darren dropped his head into his hands and tangled his fingers into his hair. "I can't outright lie, Chris. I love you and I can't stand in public and say I am in love with someone else. I'm sorry, but I can't"

Chris gently untangled Darren's hands from his curls and held them tightly, taking a deep breath before he replied.

"I love you too, Dare, you know that. I am not ashamed of us, at all, and we basically have two options here. Neither of them involves agreeing with Michael and whoever else is behind this because ... just no.

"Number one, we can ignore the email and keep things as they are. Neither one of us really likes it, but ... OR ... Number two, and after that shit, my favorite option ... we do what we should have done awhile ago. We take our lives and our careers in our own hands and tell them to fuck themselves.

"I love you, Darren Everett Criss, and right now I don't give a fuck about anything other than that."

Darren turned and, wrapping his arms tight around Chris, engulfed his mouth in a blistering kiss before leaning their foreheads together.

"So how do you want to do this Colfer?" he asked.

...

"Alright people I have a real treat for you today. Here from Glee, welcome Chris Colfer and Darren Criss."

Chris and Darren walked out onto the set of the Ellen show waving at the fans, who were applauding in the audience. After each embracing Ellen and whispering "thank you" in her ear they sat in the chairs provided and waited for her to speak.

"Guys, I have to say this is a real treat. I have had both of you on the show several times individually, but having you here together is unprecedented," she began

"Now I want all the dish here. Currently, Kurt is in New York and Blaine is still in Lima, right? I know the fans went nuts over the breakup episode ... can I even beg a hint of what is to come for those two?"

Darren and Chris both laughed as they looked at each other.

"Ellen," Darren said, "if we answered that you could take the termination call from Ryan live on the air."

"Maybe not then," Ellen replied with a laugh.

"All I can tell you, since Brad already spilled some of the beans, is that there will be interactions between the two as well as explorations of them as individuals as well." Chris said. "Honestly, I can say that I am kinda glad to get to explore Kurt for Kurt and not just as half of Klaine."

"I can see how that might be a positive in a bad situation," Ellen replied before continuing. "So, what else has been up with you two? I know Struck By Lightening and Imogene both got picked up, so both movies will be out soon. Anything else interesting going on?"

Chris and Darren could both see the twinkle in her eyes and Darren grinned as he asked, "Well, it depends on what type of agreement you have with your audience, actually, Ellen. There is something coming up, but it is time sensitive and needs to stay on the QT until this airs."

"Darren, everyone here is under a strict nondisclosure agreemen,t AND, depending on what it is, I am sure we can get this on air as soon as possible," Ellen replied. "I mean, how top secret is this?"

"Top secret enough that you might get that phone call from Ryan if anything other than the fact that we were here gets out on any of the social media," Darren said.

"Sounds serious, Darren."

"As a heart attack, Ellen," he replied.

"Ok guys. I want everyone in the audience to raise their right hands and repeat after me," Ellen said, standing and raising her own. "Under penalty of permanent loss of Internet privileges, I swear not to reveal what I hear today."

Darren and Chris laughed as the audience stood and, in a uncoordinated mass, repeated after Ellen.

"Will that do, sweetie?"

"You bet, Ellen," Darren said, chuckling. "Ok, me first or you, Chris?"

"You, Dare ... It's all you." Chris replied.

"Number one announcement ... Michael, you are fired."

"Who's Michael?" Ellen asked.

"My publicist," Darren said before continuing. "Number two announcement ... Mia, sweetie, I am sorry to have let you be put in the position you have been in for the past year. It was unfair and I never should have let it happen."

Chris grinned when he heard the collective intake of breath from the audience as Darren's words sunk in.

"Number three ..." Darren paused, and you could have heard a pin drop. "Simply put ... Crisscolfer is on, bitches." He concluded before leaning over the arm of the chair and capturing Chris's lips in a toe curling kiss.

They barely heard the audience explode.


End file.
